The husband watched me take this picture and asked what in the world I was doing.

Perhaps you are wondering the same thing?

It’s not that I want you to see my dirty dishes- in fact, I took several out for the pic. But I DO want to share a little tip that has made our lives easier. I got it from a blog I stumbled across. I wish I remembered which one so that I can give credit where credit is due, but alas I continue.

About a month ago, we started sorting our silverware when putting it in the dishwasher. Our silverware-thingy (that’s the technical term) has six compartments, and we have one each for spoons, forks, knives, long spoons, long forks, and other. When we started, I marked each one (for example, “S” or “LF”) with a Sharpie so we remembered what went where, but after a week or two the markings were no longer necessary.

I thought it might be a pain to put things in a certain place, but the truth is it’s no trouble at all. Loading the dishwasher takes no more time than before. And then when you unload, it’s magical. Grab the spoon compartment and put away all the spoons. Grab the fork compartment and put away all the forks. You’re done in no time! I bet we save at least a minute or two each time we unload. And minutes are money, people.

If I have one critique, it’s that we usually run out of room in the “other” compartment. However, I wouldn’t change anything because the “other” items tend to be things like spatulas, pizza cutters, etc. I can put these in one of the other compartments and it’s still very easy to sort out- much easier than if I were to put all the spoons regardless of length together.

That’s my handy tip of the day…it’s silly and simple, but it seriously cuts your unload time, and that makes for a happy Jayme. Give it a try, and when you love it- and I’m sure you will- you can use a couple of your new free minutes to give me a little neck massage as a thank you.

Oh. I’ve always purposefully tried to avoid putting similar items in the same spots if I could, especially spoons. My reasoning is that one spoon could sit in the other spoon (like they do in the drawer) and then only half of each spoon would get clean… and that idea bothered me. The more spoons in a single spot, the more likely that is to happen. So, when I had a dishwasher, I would spread similar utensils across as many slots as possible.
My dishwasher now is my hands, so it’s mostly a moot point for me. 🙂

This is a blog about a novice teacher's experiences, insights, failures, and successes in the classroom. Hopefully, it will comfort those who are going through similar experiences and offer an avenue for master teachers to impart their wisdom about this terrifying and yet rewarding career.